The Midwestern economy is headed toward recession, according to the latest projection from Creighton University and its monthly survey of business leaders in Iowa and eight other states.
Creighton economist Ernie Goss says the overall Business Conditions Index rose slightly for the region into the positive growth category, but Iowa’s economy is still showing negative growth.
Goss says the outlook is for a slower economy, and that the numbers are pointing toward a recession as early as the fourth quarter of 2023, but more likely in the first half of 2024.”
Goss adds that the hiring trends for the Midwest during September were “not good,” though the figures were up slightly from August. He says the job market is not strong, but it is solid.
The Iowa Utilities Board is clearing its calendar of monthly meetings for the rest of this year, reports Radio Iowa.
The IUB issued a notice that due to a high volume of docket proceedings, they are canceling the monthly public meetings set for October, November, and December. The notice says canceling the meetings will ensure there is no risk of outside communications for the public hearings and other contested cases that are pending.
The IUB is currently holding a hearing on the Summit Carbon Pipeline. The board has cancelled a scheduling conference next week on the proposed Navigator Heartland Greenway pipeline.
A north central Nebraska school district will pay a Lakota family $227,500 to settle a federal lawsuit brought after a school employee cut their children's hair without parental permission and against the family's religious beliefs, according to the Omaha World Herald.
Alice Johnson and Norma LeRoy, parents of two Cody-Kilgore elementary school students, sued the school district in 2021, with the help of the ACLU of Nebraska and the Harvard Law School Religious Freedom Clinic.
